Great general purpose flashlight - Streamlight Stinger DS LED HL 800 Lumens Flashlight

The Streamlight Stinger DS HL is a nice bright flashlight with a smooth round center spot and wide spill area. It has plenty of reach even though it isn't designed as a "thrower." (I've found narrow beamed, far throwing lights to be fun, but not as practical for most uses. They don't usually light up the whole work area and the center spot can be blinding for close work.) The Stinger DS HL strikes a good balance between distance and wide spill area.

The three output levels are well spaced for choosing a workable level of light. I haven't noticed the pulse width modulation (PWM) used for light level control, but then I haven't been looking at fast moving objects.

The light appears to be as tough as the other Streamlight flashlights I own or have given as gifts. I need not worry if it falls off a table onto a tile floor or anything like that. It comes with an anti-roll ring to help prevent such occurrences.

Still, there's always room for improvement.

The emitted light color is definitely blue-shifted -- not angry blue, but not neutral white either. Red blossoms look magenta and so forth. I would rather have a neutral tinted light, even if it weren't quite as bright. Streamlight doesn't provide color temperature information, so you don't know what to expect.

The tail switch is recessed to enable the light to stand on its tail, but I would have preferred it to protrude a little further for easier activation.

Both of the switches work the same way. The brightness is selected by pressing and holding the button. It's not bad, but I would have liked multiple presses better. Strobe is selected by double-clicking either of the switches. If you press and hold while the light is already on, the light continues through the brightness levels rather than starting at the top. The sequence is high-medium-low-medium-high. This feels natural and convenient.

It's great to have a rechargeable light, and the fast charger works well. The transformer stays warm when the light is fully charged, so I unplug it when not in use to save a few watt-hours.

The size works for me. It's small compared with D-cell Mag-Lites, but not pocket sized.

All in all it's a very bright, very useful light. I can recommend it to anyone who isn't too picky about color temperature.